802.00/3141
The Ambassador in Germany (Dodd) to the Acting Secretary of State
[Received November 25.]
Sir: In amplification of my telegram No. 190 of November 13,63 and with particular reference to despatch No. 246 of November 4, 1933, I have the honor to report that the elections last Sunday, as widely expected, resulted in an overwhelming victory for Hitler.
[Page 265]In the referendum on the Government’s foreign policy 43,460,529 votes were cast, representing 96.3 per cent of a total electorate of 45, 146,277. Of this number 40,609,243 persons affirmed the Government’s policy, while 2, 101,004 persons rejected it and 750,282 cast invalid ballots. In the election to the Reichstag 42,995,718 or 95.2 per cent of the electorate participated. Of this number 39,646,273 supported the Nazi ticket, while 3,349,445 expressed their disapproval by casting invalid ballots, as this was the only way of voting against the Nazi Party.
After casting his ballot, the voter was asked to purchase at the polling booth a small metal badge bearing the word “Yes” to show that he voted for the Government. This was the only form of pressure exerted upon the voter at the polling booth. As far as the Embassy has been able to ascertain the actual balloting was otherwise secret.
However, as pointed out in the despatch referred to above, there was a wide-spread belief among the German people that the voting would not be secret and that in some manner the Government would find out who voted against it. The Government’s assurances that the election would be free and secret failed to allay this apprehension.
The central organization of German Jews, for instance, recommended that its members should vote for the Government. This recommendation somewhat recalls certain “voluntary” denials of atrocity stories which Jewish organizations were forced to send to foreign countries during the period of Nazi outrages following their victory at the polls last March; or sundry “voluntary” contributions which Germans are compelled to make periodically and which are equivalent to regular taxes.
Moral pressure was exerted upon the voting population to induce them to vote. Voters were visited in their homes and in certain portions of the country motor cars were stopped by SA men and not allowed to proceed until the occupants could show they had voted.
Another instance of the pressure to which the population was subjected is indicated in a report from Worms to the effect that three factory managers who were listening to Hitler’s address on November 10 had been placed in a concentration camp because they went away before the speech was over. Further illustrations are offered by the election returns from various concentration camps for political prisoners. Thus, in the concentration camp at Dachau 2,231 inmates voted for the Government, while only 9 cast invalid ballots and 3 voted against the Government. In the concentration camp at Frankfort 99 political prisoners were permitted to vote; of this number 97 voted for Hitler.
Though all overt opposition was lacking, the Government conducted a most intensive campaign in which the press, the church, the radio and the cinemas served as vehicles of Nazi propaganda. Streamers [Page 266] strung across the principal streets proclaimed Germany’s desire for peace and her demand for Gleichberechtigung (equality of rights). Nazi leaders who only a few months ago glorified war and death on the field of battle addressed political meetings as apostles of peace.
Hitler’s speech to the workmen at the Siemens factory in Berlin on Friday preceding the election was the culminating point in the campaign. This speech was cleverly staged in a setting designed to produce a maximum of propagandistic effect. All shops and places of business throughout Germany ceased work at 1 o’clock for one hour to enable the employees to listen to the speech which was broadcast on a nation-wide hook-up. Employers had to provide loudspeakers for this purpose, and no employee could leave his shop or office while the Chancellor spoke. At 1 o’clock sharp the wailing of the sirens at the Siemens factory, which was broadcast to the furthermost corners of Germany, announced one minute of silence during which all work and traffic ceased. Dr. Goebbels delivered an introductory address, which was interrupted by the one minute’s silence, and then the Chancellor began to speak.
This speech, like the theatrical setting in which it was made, was cleverly calculated to appeal to the hearts of the German workmen. Mr. Hitler began by stressing the fact that he also was once a workman and that he served as a private during the war. He praised the diligence and industry of the German workmen and declared that it was his faith in the German workmen and peasants, not in the intellectual sections of the population, that gave him the courage “to begin this gigantic task”. His statement that he destroyed all political parties, not only the two labor parties of the Left (Social-Democrats and Communist), was clearly intended to appease the workmen who formerly looked to these parties for political guidance.
To lend emphasis to his appeal for the workmen’s support in the referendum, Mr. Hitler went so far as to say that without equality of rights for Germany an improvement in the German economic situation was not possible. To any impartial observer the absurdity of this argument is only too obvious. However, millions of Germans doubtless believe this, forgetting that unemployment in Germany increased more rapidly after the evacuation of the Rhineland and the cessation of reparation payments.
In an attempt to repudiate assertions in foreign countries that he was preparing for war, the Chancellor declared that any one who like himself had served at the front and was familiar with the ravages of war had had enough of it. President von Hindenburg, in his radio appeal to the nation on the eve of the election to support the Government in the struggle for Gleichberechtigung, resorted to a similar argument. The President said that anyone who like himself had experienced the horrors [Page 267] of three wars could not desire another war. For the German people the logic of such arguments is doubtless convincing. Few Germans realize that this argument could also be invoked, and with no less justification, by army officers in France and other countries, and if carried to a logical conclusion could be used to prove that all army officers who had seen war service are most convinced pacifists.
While it is true that the elections on November 12 can not well be regarded as an entirely free expression of the will of the people, there is no gainsaying that the referendum on foreign policy received widespread approval and that the German people have solemnly endorsed the Chancellor in this respect. They have also given him a homogeneous Reichstag with the aid of which he can now enact the Constitution of the Third Reich. Whether or not millions of Germans voted against their own conviction out of fear of political reprisals or because they succumbed to the influence of the one-sided intensive campaign conducted by the Government, the fact remains that Hitler has received an overwhelming vote of confidence and that he is now the undisputed ruler of Germany.
The future of the present Government affords an interesting subject for study. The German nation, as a whole, likes and respects authority even though that authority may deprive it of many individual rights and privileges which the Anglo-Saxon demands. This accounts to a certain degree for the success of the National Socialist movement. If the Nazi Government can divert public attention from economic problems by pursuing a successful foreign policy and can avoid giving undue offense to the religious sensibilities of important portions of the electorate, its tenure of power would appear to be a prolonged one.
Respectfully yours,
Counselor of Embassy
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